Wednesday, 28 October 2015

The latest trade paperback from Parallel Universe Publications is now available: A Little Light Screaming by Johnny Mains.

Johnny Mains is the award winning editor of Back From the Dead. He is
also the editor of Best British Horror and, along with Robin Ince, of
Dead Funny, both from Salt Publishing. This is his third collection of
short stories, which includes Resuscitation Andy, The Case of the
Revenant, Blossom, The Girl on the Suicide Bridge, The Foul Mass at
Tongue House, Paintings, A Forest of Lonely Deaths, Sticking Your Head
Out is Dangerous, The Curse of the Monster, and The Gamekeeper.

I just read the anthology "Kitchen Sink Gothic"
and yes, I was blown away. As a title interpretation, I can respectfully
call this Working Class Gothic, as it is a strange and Gothic journey
into the lives of the ordinary folk of our world, and not the social
elite that populate much of literature's history. And it is here that
Kitchen Sink Gothic's charms lie. As a grab-bag of different tales, some
surprise with their deviousness, and others shock with their arrogance,
but all of them, each and every story in this clever and tasty
collection, is sure to entertain. Heck, I think I'll pick it up and read
it a second time now. Yes, it is that good.

Parallel Universe Publications is proud to announce that it has yet another collection scheduled for publication this year: England 'B': 90Minutes of Hell by the infamous Richard Staines.

The collection includes six interrelated stories:No Such Thing as a FriendlyA Game of Two HalvesThe Ref's Decision is FinalGet Your Fritz Out for the LadsFootball's Dark ArtsThey Think it's all Over

What
they are saying about Richard
Staines:

“Please get in all the
Richard Staines horror books and chuck out all that other rubbish you have on
the shelves.” The T.L.S. (Tooting Library Service), message left
on their public noticeboard, 1975.

“Richard Staines is one of
the most valued contributors to our magazine and we are glad to have him,
despite the avalanche of protests. No animals were actually harmed in the
photo-spread referred to.” Readers Wives editorial, 1977.

“Unfortunately, the jury have
not been able to reach a verdict due to food poisoning, hit and run incidents,
and the disappearance of close family members, but the great British public
outside this courtroom will doubtless make up its own mind about your filthy,
depraved, sickening and contemptible books. Case dismissed. You may leave the
dock.” Lord Justice Haigh (deceased), summing up in the case of Regina vs
Richard Staines, 1978.

“Many horror authors insult
the intelligence of the people. Staines not only does this but is a bloody good
read, too. He is the future of horror in the 1980s.” Anonymous letter to Colour
Climax, 1979.

“We do not feel under any
obligation to have to respond on a point by point basis to your repeated claims
that the Nobel Prize committee for Literature have deliberately overlooked your
horror fiction and cannot undertake to reply to any further letters on this
matter.” Official letter from Lars Svenson (deceased), Nobel Prize Award
Committee, Secretary, 1979.

“That snob and has-been
Dennis Wheatley has never lived in a council flat on a Peckham estate with only
cheap cans of lager, a black and white telly, and Yes and Genesis records to
keep his muse lubricated. Dennis Wheatley's simply not as socially relevant in
today's world as a “man-of-the-people” like Richard Staines. The truth is that
Wheatley recognises all this and was just being a dick when he refused to write
the introduction to Staines' book Psycho Flasher.” Anonymous letter to The
International British Black Magic and Horror Club Newsletter # 8, 1975.

Fantasycon
is being held next weekend (24th and 25th October) and one of the most
exciting things for me is to see how one of the stories in Johnny Mains'
upcoming collection, A Little Light Screaming will do as The Girl on the Suicide Bridge is one of the four short-listed nominees for Best Short Story for the British fantasy Awards.

This is a brilliant achievement and I'll be having my fingers crossed till the winners are announced.

Mind you, whether this story wins or not it is still a nominee and that in itself is important.

Thursday, 15 October 2015

It's all go at Parallel Universe Publications. Our next book, which will be published in November, will be a brand new collection of tales by Johnny Mains: A Little Light Screaming.
These include many of his most recent writings, including a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes and his highly acclaimed The Girl on the Suicide Bridge.
The stories are:
Resuscitation Andy
The Case of the Revenant
Blossom
The Girl on the Suicide Bridge
The Foul Mass at Tongue House
Paintings (with Simon Bestwick)
A Forest of Lonely Deaths
Sticking Your Head Out Is Dangerous
The Curse of the Monster (with Bryn Fortey)
The Gamekeeper

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Busily proofreading the text for the forthcoming collection of short stories by Kate Farrell, And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After, which will be published by Parallel Universe Publications in December.
The cover is by the massively talented Vincent Chong.
The book will be published as a trade paperback and an ebook and will include seventeen highly disturbing stories.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

"You may recognise the name Charles Black and wonder where you've seen it
before? If you're a fan of horror, and in particular the horror
anthology, then you'll quickly realise that Charles Black is the editor
of that wonderful and long running Black Book of Horror series, now in
its 11th edition.

Never mind that Mr Black manages to attract
some of the best writing talent available in the horror genre for his
acclaimed anthologies ( number 11 seems to have reached new heights in
its ghoulish excellence! ), but this highly talented editor is also a
clever master of writing a great horror story as well!

Black
Ceremonies is a wonderful collection of his own, self-penned tales...13
in all, with stories that will haunt and thoroughly unsettle you. From
The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs to The Stromboli Collection, each
tale has been crafted by a master in the field of terror.

So, to
sum up, not only has Mr Charles Black created the greatest horror
anthology since those magnificent Pan Books of Horror with his Black
Books of Horror, but it transpires that he also a very talented author
as well?

Buy this collection now. ....but don't plan on getting much sleep if you read the tales at bedtime"

Friday, 9 October 2015

I am currently working on getting Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb ready for publication by Parallel Universe. Irvin S. Cobb was a famous humorist, journalist, editor and occasional actor, whose stories were amongst the most popular in American letters during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1935 he hosted the Oscars and appeared in a number of early movies.
Only occasionally did his fiction delve into darker areas. One of his most famous, Fishhead, went on to inspire H. P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, while The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls. H. P. Lovecraft wrote of Fishhead in his essay Supernatural Horror in
Literature: “banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural
affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated
lake.”
Here for the first time are collected fourteen of Irvin S. Cobb’s darkest tales:
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apopexy
Fishhead
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
The Masterpiece
January Thaw
Cabbages and Kings
We Can't All Be Thoroughbreds
Queer Creek
Ace, Deuce, Ten Spot, Joker
Balm of Gilead
Faith, Hope, and Charity